TAPS is a survivor-run group that helps victims of sex trafficking to break free. You can reach us at https://www.facebook.com/TraffickingandProstitutionServicesOnline/ We also help family members and other loves ones to "retrieve" someone they feel is either trapped into sex work. If you are a parent - you can get help at www.swanfellowship.webs.com. This is the author's personal opinion and since written in the USA is protected under rights of free speech. (702) 488-1127.

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Showing posts with label AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PETITION about sex trafficking. Show all posts

Showing posts with label AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PETITION about sex trafficking. Show all posts

Everyone's first reaction to this
letter is going to be “but 12 step programs aren't supposed to have
an opinion on outside issues” or “enter into public controversy”.
But in reality, the issue of how prostitution is viewed as a crime
or not IS an “inside” issue in our opinion. So we should weigh
in on this point with you. However, to do so would be to “engage
in public controversy” as this is a very heated topic at the
moment. So what do we do? Do we give you a position letter on the
issue from us “officially” or do we not? One thing we do know as
a 12 step program however is that we are NOT Alcoholics Anonymous or
Narcotics Anonymous. We are our own unique program and as such the
“ultimate authority” is one found through “group conscience”.
So we took a “group conscience” and came up with the following
letter we'd like to provide you with from the country's oldest, and
largest program, of not only sex trafficking survivors, but also of
men and women who are exited from the sex industry who do not feel
they were trafficked during their time in sex work.

But first of all, we need to clarify a
few words. We changed our name from “Prostitutes Anonymous” to
“Sex Workers Anonymous” because the sex industry, and thus sex
trafficking, can not be strictly defined as sex for money. There are
men and women who are working in the sex industry today who are not
having even physical contact with their clients, let alone
intercourse. Such as those who work in stripping, pornography and/or
the webcam industry. There are also men, women and children, who are
being bought and sold, as well as pimped, who are also not having
intercourse for money either.

Let me give you an example of a case we
worked on once to illustrate our point here. There was a webcam
company that was incorporated out of Florida, who hired marketing
people in Las Vegas, but the house where the female performers was
situated in was in Russia. The money was then funneled to owners who
lived in Australia. The performers were locked into private bedrooms
in a house in Russia where they were drugged daily, not let out of
their rooms, and forced to perform on webcam 24/7. These women spoke
only Russian. The marketing company in Las Vegas was a group of male
actors who would interact with the public in English and pretend to
be the female performers so the customers thought they were speaking
to these women when in fact they were not connected.

Everything on the outside appeared to
be “legal”. Only if you followed these poor women daily would
you see them losing weight, the dark circles under their eyes getting
deeper, the life starting to drain out of their energy, etc. Only
by recording them and then playing it back would you discover these
women were never leaving those rooms or going off camera for more
than a few minutes at a time to maybe go to the bathroom or change
clothes. The bedding in the bedrooms never changed either. But the
customers don't do that. They stay a few minutes at a time and then
leave. So here you have a situation where sex trafficking is
happening, this is clearly the sex industry we're talking about –
but these victims are not having sex with anyone nor are they meeting
any definition of “prostitute'. But clearly still they are
definitely trafficking victims in the sex industry who are in dire
need of help.

Legalization

Anywhere there is legalized
prostitution, or sex work such as a strip club, a sex club, a legal
brothel, a porn set, or even a webcam studio there is going to be
even more cases of sex trafficking then where it's illegal or
decriminalized. This was proven to be true in Amsterdam as to why
they shut down the windows district in 2007. It's also why we gave a
press conference in 2007 about sex trafficking in Nevada where
prostitution is legalized. So this is why we are strongly and
passionately opposed to it.

So much so that I spent a whole year in
1988 fighting back Joe Conforte from expanding the brothels into
California when he tried. So much so that there's now a Mob Museum
and an arts district where many men once wanted to expand the legal
brothels into downtown Las Vegas. I put every bit of power and
resources I had into fighting the legal brothels from expanding on
those two fronts because I knew what kind of damage it would mean to
the women who worked at those brothels – as well as how it would
directly increase the number of sex trafficking victims who would be
harmed.

Criminalization

While we don't feel that any
prostitute, or sex worker, should be treated as a criminal, we also
have to acknowledge that sometimes the only way a victim finds help
is through an arrest. I myself was in a trafficking situation in
connection with Iran Contra. Which if you look up in your history
books you'll see was connected to our own government. Now how am I
supposed to get out of this situation or leave when the power of our
own government is behind these men? The ONLY way I was able to be
extracted out of what I was forced into was by being arrested. Then
by having the light shone on me that probation does put upon you –
this forced these men to back off and leave me alone. I can also
give you story after story of victims who were not able to escape
their pimps and/or traffickers UNTIL they were arrested and thus
removed from their situation that was trapping them.

However, there's also the other side of
the coin to that. The men who were trafficking me were so scared
that I'd turn against them once I was in police custody they tried to
have me murdered to silence me. I know of other victims who have
been in the same situation such as Margo Compton. When she then
testified against her traffickers – her and her twin six year old
daughters were slaughtered. So arresting a victim also can stir up
the fear of arrest, or exposure, in a trafficker prompting their
murder. Jeane Palfrey, the DC Madam, was a trafficking victim. She
released her “Black Book” to the media to try and expose her
trafficking. I also feel she was murdered for that same reason
before she could reveal more names she had intended on revealing –
which happened after her arrest also.

Decriminalization

While yes this is great on the idea of
realizing that many sex workers are in fact victims of force and
shouldn't be treated like criminals, that doesn't mean there aren't
criminals out there who are posing as prostitutes who “roll”
their customers to get money to buy drugs. Also, without arresting a
prostitute how do you get any accurate numbers with respect to STD'S
like HIV/AIDS, Hep C, HPV, TB, etc. Many prostitutes either are not
getting any medical testing done, or they're seeing “trick doctors”
who don't report to the CDC, and thus this poses a threat to the
public health. However, when a prostitute is arrested they get
mandatory testing in most states. Many are refused admittance into
drug treatment, or even shelters, unless they're a part of the
criminal justice system.

Once arrested – a judge can court
order a prostitute not only tested for STD's, but also to attend
counseling, Sex Workers Anonymous meetings, drug treatment, parenting
classes, diversion, or a whole host of other social programs needed
to improve their lives, and the lives of their children, that they
might not do without the threat of incarceration on top of them. I
also know that it's next to impossible to build a case for the
prosecution of your traffickers when everyone is too busy covering
their own backside to want to testify for you, or to supply you with
evidence. I have seen horrific cases of violence, trafficking,
abuse, etc., where the “johns” have just walked away without
reporting anything to the police for fear they'll be arrested and
then lose their jobs, their marriage, their reputation, etc.

I believe if they weren't afraid of
arrest more cases would be finding their way to court against the
traffickers if it were decriminalized. However, criminalization is
not why many victims don't get rescued. I've spoken to more than one
undercover officer who said they have seen women they know are young
women reported as missing victims out there during their undercover
work that they have NOT rescued, or intervened in to extract, for
fear of upsetting their drug case. So I think we're also seeing less
prosecutions, and less rescues, not because of whether this is legal
– but because the men behind undercover officers are telling them
these drug arrests are more important than rescuing the women.

I've also spoken to more than one vice
officer who reports to me they aren't given any money to investigate
trafficking cases. The end result is they just go out and arrest
street prostitutes because it's “cheap, quick and easy”.
However, those are usually women of color working the streets. The
sex industry itself is very racist. The clients who patronize the
strip clubs, the massage parlors, and the escort services prefer
women who are light skinned or even Asian. They will refuse to see
women of color – relegating them to the streets most of the time.
Very few porn producers will even use women of color. Ask yourself
when is the last time you saw an African American woman on the cover
of Playboy? Check out the catalog of women at the Bunny Ranch. So
by criminalizing prostitution – we're stuffing the jails with women
of color simply because the industry is structured that way and the
money to investigate for sex trafficking isn't making it's way there
to the vice cops doing these arrests.

So what's our position on the issue?
Our position is we're not asked. We haven't been asked to advise on
any of the laws on this issue by anyone. We haven't been asked by
your group what we think about this issue. We haven't been asked by
Congress. We haven't been asked by anyone despite the fact we formed
our program as a 12 step program specifically because as such we can
be used as an “alternative to sentencing” under laws already
grandfathered into the legal system by Alcoholics Anonymous and
Narcotics Anonymous.

Meaning we're not even being used as an
“alternative to sentencing” any longer despite being right here
since the TVRA of 2003 was passed and the “faith based” groups
went into competition with us in this field. Despite the fact
professor Sharon Oselin did a 10 year study into the top three
programs working to help prostitutes leave the sex industry,
trafficked or not, and found that not only was ours the most
effective, but we're even the only one still operating once her study
“Leaving Prostitution” was completed. The faith based programs
have an almost 100 percent failure rate since before we formed. Yet
despite them not having anywhere the effectiveness rates we do – we
can't compete with the power of the Catholic Church or the Salvation
Army who bumped us out of alternative sentencing we were offering
prostitutes in the 80's, 90's, and up until 2003.

The ACLU v. Catholic Bishops was won,
and the Supreme Court even said we can't legally be blocked – but
the fact remains that we still are being blocked because we now have
a legal system that doesn't even want to say the word “prostitute”
anymore let alone “sex worker” in their pursuit of “victims”.
So we're hearing now from courts who refuse to refer to us because
they want money to build their own programs, or to apply for grants
to work with them now instead. In Las Vegas for example, Judge Voy
kicked us out of his courtroom 12, locked up the young girls in jail,
and then used photos of these teens in jail to try and raise
$2,000,000 to build his own 14 bed program. We can't compete with
that.

So our position is when we're asked
what our position is – then we'll render it. Thank you for
listening.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

My name is Jody Williams. I'm the founder of the modern day sex trafficking movement itself. You can verify this by clippings I have up at www.hightechmadam.com The "brothel" I was charged with having was the first "safe house" for adults. We had to set up our own because the police didn't even believe trafficking was real - let alone would they do anything or have anywhere safe for us to go. I couldn't explain that back then as a defense.

Wanting to change this is what went into the founding in 1987 of our hotline, the 12 step program, and the first program in Los Angeles then Mayor Tom Bradley set up with the courts and jails as the first "alternative" sentencing program that recognized there were in fact victims years before we got federal recognition with the Trafficking Act of 2000 passing.

Needing cheap housing - I married in 1994 and relocated to a small town outside of Omaha, Nebraska. Once settled into Blair, Nebraska, we set about buying homes for $5,000 and $10,000 that we turned into "safe houses" for adults (male, female and transgender) where we took victims from the east and west coasts of these trafficking rings and set them up in the midwest into new lives.

My husband's nephew at this time was the Omaha District Attorney. Boys Town was there and still reeling from the Omaha Franklin scandal. Meaning we were having to help young boys escape Boys Town, and local politicians in Nebraska and Iowa which we'd put on planes to send back to Children of the Night. The only program I was aware of anyway that accepted males and transgenders under the age of 18 years old that also provided proper medical supervision for those who were on, or forced to be on, hormones.

Realize this was in 1994 before there was federal recognition - meaning we had to fund all of this work ourselves and do it in a world that still didn't recognize any of this as "real" yet. When I moved back there they were still locking up boys in hospitals for observation if they said these things were happening to them. Made more complicated by the fact the whole state had three psychiatrists in the whole state - and those three were very devoutly "anti" LGBT.

When I first read the legislature out there was going to go after "harsher penalties" for traffickers I knew this would mean more dead witnesses. So I contacted the NE Legislature who agreed with me and changed their course. I was told they were going to set up the first ever programs to help victims back there after many long conversations with the legislators back there, along with some of the local police and churches.

We had a great working relationship UNTIL they got the first federal grant. The minute they got that grant, and the task force was set up - suddenly everyone acted like they didn't even know my name. The ACLU vs. Catholic Bishops lawsuit win and the Supreme Court decision that I also helped to bring to be - I thought would do something to change the fact that suddenly these people who came into a field I carved out of nothing were acting like they didn't even know my name because of obtaining money from the Catholic Church for distancing themselves, and anyone they worked with - from anyone who was not putting religious rhetoric before the needs of the victims.

After these grants started coming into Nevada - I'm suddenly talking to women who are so emotionally distressed because of a total lack of recovery services appropriate and effective for their situation (if all we needed was an AA meeting - I wouldn't have formed SWA now would I have?) that they couldn't even maintain a phone conversation with me thinking on their own for two minutes who are telling me there "are no resources" for victims back there. When I said "what are you talking about - of course there's resources" (we have three houses back there mind you that my ex-husband still owns and we use) - these people then refuse to speak to me because that idea clearly interferes with their fund raising and grant writing projects.

Now I can't even get services to victims through these programs - nor can I even get a return phone call now from the very people who I put in their minds to start trafficking programs in the first place.

Just thought you should know how well your grant money is being spent. Prostitutes are having police threaten to take away their children if they don't prosecute their husbands and the father of their children as "pimps". I don't call that progress. Especially when I can't even get anyone on the phone to talk to me about what "real" trafficking looks like in Nebraska because I assure you it's very different back there than it is in California or NY.

First, I want you to know I respect
your jobs even more now than ever since the Telecommunications Act of
1995 passed. I want you to know that had that law passed one day
before it did – we wouldn't even be talking about the issue of
child sex trafficking. Why? Because in the 1960's, 70's, and 80's
(I don't know how old you are), the issue was considered to be so
non-existent that if you spoke about it back then you were received
exactly the same as if you said “aliens are abducting me and
selling me for sex” today.

If you call a cop today and ask them to
“go rescue a girl at such and such address because the aliens have
her” - that's the reception I got when I tried during the 1980's
and women were being pimped and sold by the men who were nicknamed
the “Hillside Strangler”. Notice they called these two men
“murderers” but NOT traffickers which is what they were before
they started murdering women.

If you tried to seek a therapist for
the trauma you just endured having your family's lives were being
threatened if you did not comply, for being shot at, kidnapped,
raped, locked in a crack house and forced to “service” 20 gang
bangers and a baseball bat, or witnessed our CIA bringing boat loads
of cocaine into the piers of Los Angeles in Iran Contra in the 1980's
– they would lock you up for observation for “hallucinating”.

I know because when I started having
anxiety attacks and sought professional help in the early 1980's –
that's exactly what they tried to do to me every time I sought
counseling or tried to get help. I wound up “self-medicating” on
the cocaine doctors were promoting on TV talk shows back then as
“non-addictive” and “mood elevators” - and wound up with a
$2000 a day drug habit that drug me into Narcotics Anonymous finally
where others who had witnessed what I'd witnessed because they flew
those planes and sailed those boats put me back together again. So I
know well the power of the media.

I had to wait until I was off probation
for an arrest I suffered in 1984 where a “safe house” I had built
for trafficking victims (we couldn't turn to the police and homeless
shelters weren't safe and since no one believed sex trafficking was
real – there were no homes for adult trafficking victims then so I
created one), was dubbed a “brothel”. The only other “safe
house” in the world I was aware of back then was for teens with
Children of the Night. The security I had built into it (a home in a
residential area wasn't safe in case there was shooting which did
happen) got me dubbed the “High Tech Madam”.
Www.hightechmadam.com.
No one bothered to ask why I had a “brothel” two blocks from the
police station. But once I was off probation, and after seeing that
there were no services for us anywhere because no one believed this
was even real – I embarked upon a media campaign to change things.

I had no money to buy advertising or
create a marketing campaign. Mind you this was in 1987 when I
stepped up so there was no fax machines, no internet, and our 800
hotline I had installed was costing me $1.00 a minute Actually even
more because I had to rent an office to host an 800 phone (they
weren't allowed in residential homes – so I had to rent an office
just to get an 800 number back then). So the only power I had back
then was the power of FREE press and media. So I did what I could do
back then – I went onto talk shows, the news, the tabloid shows
like 20/20 and 60 Minutes, and I even had a couple of documentaries
made about my story and what I'd witnessed.

Was this dangerous? Gary Webb was a
respected reporter who validated everything I was saying as true
about Iran Contra and he was found dead with two shotgun blasts to
the head. Coroners say it's impossible to do this. Jeane Palfrey
released her “Black Book” to prove that the sex trafficking she
was a victim of was in fact connected to people in the highest
offices in this country such as Randall Tobias. She was found hung
in a shed in her mother's backyard. Her mother's home being where
she'd fled to the night before for safety because someone had been
following her around all the day before. So yes what I was doing was
risky. But frankly I was allowed to speak because I received the
same reaction initially telling the stories of what I'd seen as if I
was talking about alien abductions – at first.

Geraldo's producer suggested to me in
1988 that “if you could bring on more stories from people you'd
rescued – then people would have to believe you”. I also knew
from watching Linda Lovelace before me who had tried to tell her
personal story – that if I accepted money for a book or movie I'd
be discredited as just “trying to make money” so I refused all
offers. We followed that advice and we started doing shows like
Geraldo with 2, 3 and 4 survivors telling their stories also. But
then the “novelty” wore off and we stopped being asked to appear
on many of these shows.

But the FCC had a rule of law then that
if you were speaking about an issue that was being voted upon – you
had to bring an “opponent”. So in 1988, when Joe Conforte, owner
of the Mustang Ranch legal brothel wanted to expand into California
and further into Nevada, put a $1,000,000 up into a PR firm and
embarked upon his campaign – he literally could not appear on TV or
radio without an “opponent”. No one would step up against him
back then but me. I wasn't threatened either because he needed me to
get on the air. He lost. So at a time when everyone believed that
prostitution was a “victim less crime” and when having sex with
anyone under the age of 18 was NOT “statutory rape” in ALL
circumstances – I beat out by myself a man who had $1,000,000 in
advertising AND the hearts of men.

We built upon that and I took advantage
of a weekly public access TV show I could get put on air free back
then. Frances Nuyen, the actress, recorded free public service
announcements that we made dubs of the tapes and sent to TV and radio
stations across this country. Soon from the east to the west coast –
there were commercials running late at night with our 800 # saying
“if you want help to get out – call 800 #”. We made dubs of
the cable show and sent those to public access all over the country
as well with interviews from the MEN and women who were coming to us
for help – and getting it. These were things all afforded us by
the FCC's requirements that a TV or radio station had to “serve the
community” by donating a certain amount of air time free to groups
like ours. It gave us voices.

Sure certain corporation owned stations
didn't want us on the air. Others wanted to actively try and
discredit us. I got a call in 1992 that the Donahue producers were
going to put an impostor of me on the air. I threatened with legal
action. They sent someone to beat up a man who was demanding to be
allowed to speak about male sex trafficking so he couldn't appear on
that show. Finally, I walked onto that stage. But because they
didn't own ALL the media – we still were able to continue talking.

But as Noam Chomsky wrote in
“Manufacturing Consent” about the power of words – he said that
“propaganda is to democracy what violence is to a dictatorship”.
We were winning ground nonviolently. So the Telecommunications Act
of 1995 was passed and suddenly our voices were silenced. Our
commercials, our weekly cable shows, all went “poof”. No longer
were we allowed to “oppose” anything which allowed for the rise
of the fake “Samoly Mam” who defrauded Americans out of millions
of dollars. More importantly, she did not speak the voice of a
“true” American sex trafficking victim. The same allowed for
Bill Hilliar to rise with his fake story that became the movie
“Taken” which further defrauded people not only financially –
but ideologically about again what AMERICAN sex trafficking is, what
it looks like, what our concerns are, and our voice.

Despite this all, we saw the
Trafficking Act of 2000 passed. The modern day sex trafficking
movement was now a reality. However, even the author of this Act,
Michael Horowitz, agrees with me it's been “hijacked”. Randall
Tobias, the same man who was in Jeane's “Black Book”, came along
and had the TVRA Act of 2003 passed which OVERRODE the 2000 Act.
This stated that no one would receive any federal funding IF they did
not “have a written policy AGAINST prostitution”. Pretty big
deal when you're a 12 step program and you're not allowed to have ANY
“opinion on an outside issue”.

What's the big deal? From the east to
the west coast, our program was in the jails. Our program was being
used as an “alternative to sentencing”, and as a condition of
probation in all major cities. We had a meeting in just about every
Salvation Army and Catholic Charities shelter. EVERY residential
program that had prostitutes in them ALSO had a “Prostitutes
Anonymous” or a “Sex Workers Anonymous” meeting in them (we had
to change our name in 1995 to Sex Workers Anonymous to bypass the
adult filters on computers). We had set up the first court systems
in Los Angeles and Allentown in our history which afforded those
considered “victims” to be given treatment instead of
incarceration. Now mind you OUR programs were for EVERYONE. This
included men, women, transgenders AND the LGBT community. We
welcomed everyone AND we ensured ALL got help.

But because of TVRA of 2003, we were
handed our pink slip in 2004 and shunned by anyone and everyone that
received one dollar of federal funding. Social workers, probation
officers, cops who used to hand out our flyers on the whore strolls –
were all told they'd be fired if they even mentioned our name. (Just
for the record – I'd like to state that the Supreme Court shot this
down last year as “unconstitutional”.)

President Bush then further added that
ONLY “faith based groups” could receive federal grants. Now I
think you know most churches DON'T take kindly to transgenders and
the LGBT community – two groups we welcome in our 12 step
structure. So what happened in 2004 – was that suddenly these
groups had the money, had the power of the press, AND the support of
the whole legal system at the same time we were being BLOCKED from
everything. What this accomplished was it completely, utterly and
totally WIPED OUT all services to transgenders, men, and the LGBT
trafficking victims,

Could we speak out about this
injustice? No. Many publications, even radio stations, receive
federal money as well as money from the church. So we were now
banned from those media outlets. Leaving us to turn to media
monsters like Hearst Media whose CEO, Steve Sassa, was a “john”
(this is verified in the press as to why he got fired). Now let me
ask you – if you were an alcoholic would you allow advertising for
“Alcoholics Anonymous” and run stories on the damage alcoholism
does? I think not. Meaning that those TV and radio stations that
are promoting the sex industry – shut us out also.

Now for the record since people seem to
have some pretty crazy ideas about us – so let me first clarify
something. The LEGAL age in this country varies from state to state.
Meaning that you're still a minor at 18 years of age in California.
However, if you jump across the border into Nevada that age turns to
15 years old. In Nevada, a girl can LEGALLY have sex AND she can
work in a strip club as well as get a license to work in a legal
brothel. To my knowledge, we are the only program that has been
actively doing outreach to, and going and physically picking those
girls up from those combination strip club/brothels that operate in
Nevada because those girls not only are too young to get a drivers
license – but it's literally against the law for them to walk out
of there on foot except on rare occasions.

Meaning that we might get a call from a
15 or 16 year old who is working in one of those clubs to “come and
get me out of here”. There are no cabs nor buses anywhere near
these. The girls are also not given their money when they quit –
it's only released to their “manager”. So they're broke.

Within a LEGAL context, these girls are
not “trafficking victims”. Not until a case can be built to
prove they were forced to work there. They are not “statutory
rape” victims either. They ARE in the eyes of the LAW either
“prostitutes” or “sex workers” according to how they want to
identify.

Now do I agree with this? I live a
“clean and sober” life today. Meaning I don't live in a fantasy
world – but the real one. I don't live in what “ought” to be
or what is “tasteful” to me. A spade is a spade and a rose is a
rose. My grandfather died of alcoholism. He got drunk and choked on
his own vomit to death. I do not however call liquor stores “death
merchants”. I do not call breweries “death machines”. I don't
call up reporters and ask them to call all references to booze as
“poison”. Nor do I call anyone who drinks an “alcoholic” or
a “wino”. Those are subject feelings NOT FACT.

My grandmother was murdered by my
grandfather shooting her with a gun five times. Now – do I call up
my local TV station and when someone is shot to death and demand
every time they say the word “gun” as “grandmother killer”?
My mother died from smoking four packs of cigarettes a day. Now –
do I call up the newspapers and state that every time they use the
word “tobacco company” they instead call them “matricide
factories”? No I don't. Anyone who would is either living in a
fantasy world or has an agenda. Which in reality is what's
happening here with this recent petition.

There has been a move in this country
by people with very large pockets to try and stamp out what we here
at Sex Workers Anonymous are achieving. Like Noam is trying to warn
us about the power of words here -
http://hope.journ.wwu.edu/tpilgrim/j190/Chomsky.summary.html
– these people are trying to control minds through the power of
propaganda.

Because the Telecommunications Act of
1995 wiped out reporting and media. We are now a country of
propaganda because we no longer even ALLOW dissenting opinions unless
they can buy space. These people have tried to control this movement
with creating fake “Samoly Mam's” they put on the podiums, on TV,
and in magazines without us being allowed to have our voices heard to
counter. They tried to wipe us out of the legal system with the
TVRA of 2003 – but the Supreme Court struck that down. They tried
to wipe us out of the movement we started with a checkbook. But the
ACLU vs. Catholic Bishops judgment lost them that footing. But we're
just not shutting up and going away.

So last year these people decided to
try and change the English dictionary to gain control. They wrote a
letter to the editor of the Chicago Manual of Style asking him to
tell reporters and writers to change all use of the word “prostitute”
to “rape victim”. Well that didn't fly very well. Nor did it
fly when they tried to convince the UN of this word change in their
meeting last year either.

So they tried to regain ground in
people's minds with creating a completely staged and faked so called
“reality show” called “8 Minutes” trying to further portray a
“prostitute” as a “victim”. We got that show taken off the
air after only three episodes. Not as a “censorship” move –
but because it was being used to defraud donors and our government
out of millions of dollars in grant money as well as the minds of the
people as to what exactly a “sex trafficking victim is”. While
they argue a young prostitute should be called a “rape victim” -
I argue that a “prostitute” is not a “victim”. Anymore than
Gordon Ramsey is a trafficking victim. I say that because
trafficking victims exist in ANY industry.

Now they're writing to you. I propose
that this country hasn't even straightened out the use of the words
for “statutory rape” and “sex” with children. Not when in
Nevada a 16 year old is called a “sex worker” for doing the same
exact thing that if done in California would not only make her a
“rape victim” but would also shut down the very place she's being
marketed in and arrest those same customers. Now does calling that
Nevada 16 year old legal prostitute a “rape victim” solve
anything? Not one bit. Which is all the more reason why I'm saying
to this THIS IS AN AGENDA.

You are our last bastion of reality
here. We are becoming a society of 1984 propaganda. Especially in a
world where the media just won the legal right to lie to us in the
lawsuit between Akre, Wilson and Fox. I say this because to support
their agenda these people have been blatantly LYING in the media for
years now and it's getting worse. In an article with NBC's Marion
Brooks for example, they took a woman I had served a legal “cease
and desist” letter upon twice already to have her stop
impersonating me in the press in order to shill for grant money and
donations and they ran it anyway after I had told them in writing
this woman was an impostor and that the meetings they were filming
were not ours.

The FCC told me I could not only not
complain about the station running this false piece of propaganda,
that they could do nothing about it Further they could do nothing to
allow me any equal air time to counter what was said. I was silenced
about my own impersonation. Five reporters told me if they even
tried to mention our name – they'd be fired. Now Fox has won all
media the right to completely deceive the public also – and the
legal right to FIRE anyone who refuses to report these lies. So I'm
begging you as our last line of defense with truth and reality here –
to please not bow to the pressure of these people to start calling
things as we wish them to be instead of what they are.

If you have any questions for me –
please don't hesitate to call me.

Thank you for listening.

Jody Williams

PS – for the record, we do not
have anyone under the age of 18 years old sitting in our meetings
calling themselves “prostitutes” or “sex workers”. Anyone
under the age of 18 years old, no matter what state they are in, we
refer them out to organizations to help them who are properly
equipped to do so. Our members do not identify as “prostitutes”
or “sex workers” either in meetings. Those are job titles and
therefore not what our program is about.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

I saw a petition today signed by a lot of non-survivors of trafficking again trying to speak for us without including us. I then noticed the petition was created by CATW. So I went to their site to see the false claim they were the "first to fight international sex trafficking".

What a bunch of hooey! Below is a letter I wrote to them about this. Their site claims they were founded in 1988 by the way - yet I started our work in 1987. I didn't see or hear them around that's for sure. Considering I was appearing on 20/20, Nightline, Geraldo, Donahue, etc. - you'd think they would have heard of me and come to say something to me during this time. Yet none of the victims we were talking to knew anything about them either . https://www.change.org/organizations/coalition_against_trafficking_in_women_international_catw

Hello:

Please allow me to introduce myself because you clearly don't seem to have the slightest awareness of who I am, or what I've done for this movement. I am the founder of the modern day sex trafficking movement for one thing. Which is why your website's claim that you are the "first" organization to "fight trafficking internationally" is false.

I say that because when I looked around for YEARS for help for myself, and for other victims of trafficking I was witnessing being sold - I didn't see you around anywhere. I scoured the earth for six years before realizing that I'd have to step into those shoes. Meaning in 1987 - I founded the first hotline for adults to call for help as well as the first program where one could call for help to arrange a "rescue" and where they could find recovery from what they'd experienced in a world that didn't even acknowledge we existed in 1987.

I've attached my CV for your review - and you can substantiate my claims with news clippings I have up at High Tech Madam: NEWS CLIPPINGS ABOUT US It was myself, and our members who were the first ones to go on TV speaking about sex trafficking, including myself speaking about our own government's involvement with Iran Contra. I suffered great sacrifices to start this movement and don't take kindly to other people making claims about my work as theirs.

As for "abolition" - I was the only person I saw stepping up to Joe Conforte when he put $1,000,000 into a PR firm, and another $1,000,000 into a bogus medical study to make the false claim that none of the brothel prostitutes had HIV in 1988 when he launched his campaign to bring the legal brothels into California.

I was the one who contacted the researcher to validate the parameters of the study and basically expose the test was "rigged". I was the one who went on countless TV shows, stages, podiums, and in front of reporters to shoot holes in the claim he was making all over the world that "no brothel prostitutes have HIV" at great risk to myself considering the death threats I received for what I was doing. I was the only one who stood up to him and therefore I am the reason why there's no legal brothels in California today.

As well as in Las Vegas. Starting in 1991 - I fought the brothel owners back with everything I had from fulfilling what ex-mayor Oscar Goodman was pitching to investors that Las Vegas would have "magnificent brothels". I was the one who contacted business owners to gather information on how much money the brothels were costing Nevada in convention and trade show money to make the economic report which the state relied upon to instead build the Mob Museum where a brothel was slated to be built.

It was myself, and our members who comprised the panel who gave the press conference in Vegas in 2007 about "Trafficking in Nevada" validating sex trafficking existed in legal sex work. I'm the one whose car was trashed, whose phone lines were cut, whose life was threatened, whose daughter was run over by a SUV which broke her back, got evicted, and had a bomb put in our outreach RV for giving that conference - which resulted in beating back the brothel industry in Nevada so severely that the only two brothel owners left today are Dennis Hof and Lance Gilman.

It was our member of SWA who stood up at the Nevada legislature on February 20, 2013, during an unscheduled meeting where the brothels were still trying to get permission to expand into Las Vegas - where her testimony about the reality of what goes on in legal brothels that blocked that expansion and caused the lobbyist, George Flint, to announce his retirement after 20 years in frustration.

So needless to say I'm highly offended when your site makes such a false claim as being the "first" program to fight sex trafficking internationally when I've been organizing rescue operations here in the states, as well as Canada, and five other countries since the 1980's. The fact that you don't include US - real survivors - is very apparent in your letters who granted have long lists of signatures - but not from real survivors with real voices because of your continued insistence on acting like we simply don't exist.

Frankly I'm tired of the false claims and that's why I've been researching what I can do about it. I've found I do have recourse. So I suggest you modify this claim off your site immediately - or you'll come to find out about the remedies I've discovered that I do have to do something about these continued false claims that you're benefiting from.

Somewhat. Because you know what? A lot of people know the truth and call me constantly about what a bum rap they think we're getting from the way your organization has been not only making these false claims - but also completely ignoring the very real contributions I've made to this field - INCLUDING CREATING IT.

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About Me

I've been helping men and women leave the sex industry since 1987. Some were forced - some were not. Some thought they weren't and with time realized they were. Some thought they were and with time realized they weren't. Which is why I just focus on this - if you want help to leave any part of the sex industry for any reason - just get in touch. I run Sex Workers Anonymous, Trafficking & Prostitution Services, as well as the American Trafficking Institute. I produce www.blogtalkradio.com/stopsextrafficktalk, and the magazine "Sanity Today". I also help investigators and the authorities with sex trafficking cases, and families help their loved ones leave the streets. Currently I'm organizing www.boycottsnoop.com to demand an acknowledgment of the damage that was done to women during his 2003 tour and www.pimpalert.com to help caught pimps who are dangerous and on the streets. Our book on the history of this field "Anatomy of a Movement" is almost done.